Additional Financing for Tunisia COVID-19 Response Project

active

Prospective

On March 2, 2020, the Government of Tunisia (GOT) confirmed its first case of COVID-19 and took immediate steps to try and contain the spread of the virus, which was initially successful and led to a phased easement of restrictions. Starting early August 2020, however, Tunisia has been facing a significant with cumulative confirmed cases doubling from 1,500 to over 3,000 over the same period. As of January 4, 2021 there are over 142,000 cumulative confirmed cases and over 4,800 confirmed deaths. 54 percent of confirmed cases were females, while about 60 percent of the deaths were males. Test positivity rate is at 20 percent, which is significantly above the WHO-recommended threshold of 5 percent, suggesting both low testing capacity as well as uncontrolled spread. As a result, the GoT requested additional support in the amount of US$100 million to contribute to the efforts to fight the pandemic already undertaken through the parent project “Tunisia COVID-19 Response Project” (P173945). The parent project in the amount of US$20 million was approved on April 30, 2020 and was developed as part of the COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan (SPRP) using the Multiphase Programmatic Approach (MPA), which was approved by the Board on April 2, 2020 (PCBASICO219761). On October 13, 2020, the Board of Executive Directors approved an additional financing (PAD4185) to the Global COVID-19 MPA in the amount of US$12 billion. The primary objectives of the proposed AF are to further strengthen preparedness and response activities under the parent project and to enable affordable and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines and help ensure effective vaccine deployment in Tunisia through health system strengthening.As mentioned above, the parent project in an amount of US$20 million was approved on April 30, 2020. The PDO of the parent project is to improve COVID-19 detection and infection control in Tunisia through increasing the availability of COVID-19 equipment and supplies. It includes two components: (i) Emergency COVID-19 Response (US$19.85 million); and (ii) Implementation Management and Monitoring and Evaluation (US$0.1 million). The parent project aims to support the Ministry of Health (MOH) in its efforts to immediately respond to the COVID-19 emergency and fill its gaps in terms of medical equipment and supplies, personal protective equipment (PPE), and infection control products. The proposed AF will meet the government’s preliminary estimated financing needs of US$100 million to support financing the Tunisia COVID-19 vaccination strategy. Specifically it would provide additional resources for expanding the scope of the existing two components as well as add two new components to the parent project. The project’s current two components, (i) Emergency COVID-19 Response, and (ii) Implementation Management and Monitoring and Evaluation will be maintained and scaled up and two new components (iii) Supporting Health Systems Strengthening, and (iv) Contingency Emergency Response Component (CERC) will be added in line with the Global MPA.

FY17 - Health

World Bank

Project

Hospital, Government